It is of vital importance that young children, especially infants and babies, wear assorted coverings such as gloves, mittens, socks, shoes, hats, and the like on various bodily appendages. Such coverings can protect the child from the environment and help maintain normothermia. However, these coverings can be lost in a number of fashions as a child squirms, kicks, or otherwise moves about.
As a baby ages they begin to become more aware of the surroundings. This typically leads to a baby playing with the hands and feet often times pulling and grabbing at individual fingers and toes. As the baby's motor skills increase, they become more adept at removing these various coverings by their own deliberate actions, however, they lack the skills to put them back on or prevent their loss. In many instances, for example a shoe, may become lost without the parent or caregiver realizing the loss until it is too late. This, as noted, is not only undesirable for the child but can also impart monetary hardships on a new parent as these various coverings can be expensive to replace.
Additionally, it is important that any such implementation be safe for use. Young children, as noted, are particularly inquisitive about their surroundings. As they “discover” new senses, abilities, and the like, the likelihood of injury becomes greater. Young children, especially babies, can be quite adept at biting or otherwise separating parts from toys, clothing, etc. In fact, federal law dictates that warnings pertaining to choking hazards must be placed on such products. Thus, it is of great importance that any system designed for children be devoid of small parts or parts that may be separated from larger parts that could result in choking and/or serious injury to a child.
There have been attempts to rectify this potential loss of clothing items but have been met with tepid results as they can be difficult to implement and may be uncomfortable for the baby. These solutions may involve using cords, wraps, straps, and the like to secure a covering to another article of clothing or to the baby itself. A more prudent solution takes advantage of a baby's natural inability to interact with their surroundings on a grander scale. Typically children three years of age or less have many individual skills, but may not have the capability to combine skills to solve a problem. Thus, while a child may have great manual dexterity, finger strength, and problem-solving skills, these are often exhibited in a disjointed manner.
The present invention and its embodiments provides for an apparatus that can be used to couple a covering such as a shoe and sock combination to one another to prevent removal of both covering items. The simple, yet innovate apparatus, is easily manipulated by adults, however, cannot be operated by young children. The apparatus, in one embodiment, prevents the shoe from being removed over the heel thereby preventing removal of the shoe. Clearly, a sock cannot be removed without first having removed the shoe. Further, the apparatus is intended to be of a unitary construction thereby preventing choking or other harm from befalling a child. Review of related technology:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,619 pertains to an anklet that includes a strap that encircles an ankle of a child, a quick disconnect buckle that is affixed to, and selectively maintains, the strap around the ankle, and a leash that depends from the strap and engages a foot covering worn by the child so as to prevent loss of the foot covering if unintentionally removed. The strap includes an ankle-facing layer that is made of an elastomer with a modulus of elasticity, and an ambient-facing layer that directly overlies the ankle-facing layer and is made of a fabric that has a limited modulus of elasticity so as to prevent the ankle-facing layer from passing the modulus of elasticity thereof and failing. The leash is an endless loop that extends through the foot covering and then extends back through itself, and in so doing, becomes self-fastened to the foot covering.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,619 pertains to a connector which can be detachably fastened at one end to the rear of a sock at or above the heel region and which can be detachably fastened at the other end to the outside of the rear or heel region of a shoe. This connector, when fastened, completely restrains riding or sliding of the sock into the shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,324 pertains to a sock having a flap protruding from its rear or heel area, which flap can be fastened to the outside of the rear or heel area of a shoe to prevent the sock from riding, slipping or otherwise working into the heel cavity of the shoe as the person wearing the sock and shoe moves about.
U.S. Application 2011/0011902 pertains to a baby sling with foot support shoes, which is capable of supporting a baby's feet so that the baby's knees are bent and legs are not dangling when the baby is held on a holder's chest by the baby sling, so as to prevent the baby's thighs from being pressed and chafed between the holder and the baby sling, while improving the baby's health and stability by allowing smooth blood circulation.
Thus, various devices are known in the art. However, their structure and means of operation are substantially different from the present disclosure. The other inventions fail to solve all the problems taught by the present disclosure. The present invention provides for an apparatus that may be used with various articles of clothing to prevent their separation. The apparatus can be easily manipulated by adults, while preventing children from completing the same task. At least one embodiment of this invention is presented in the drawings below and will be described in more detail herein.